30.04 - Day 106 - Kansas City to St Louis
Tuesday 30th April - Kansas City - St Louis, Missouri (Day 106)
All that lies between Seb and Sienna and a final plunge in the pool and slides at Great Wolf Lodge is getting their schoolwork done for the day so after breakfast in the room the kids knuckle down to complete it; teacher Kate patiently sitting with Seb whilst I look over the shoulder of Sienna.
Kate and I play a game of laser tag against one another, the kids in the laser tag room with us cheering on mum who is ruthless in her sharp shooting (note Matt did not hesitate to shoot me in the back several times - Kate).
We’re in the pool as soon as it opened at 10am for a final 30 minutes flying down the slides still with no queues. The kids are unhappy to leave, but they’d be unhappy to leave after 30 minutes or 3 hours and 30 minutes. But we drag them out, wash off the chlorine and check out. A fun experience for one night, just glad we went on a Monday / Tuesday when it was as quiet as it gets (and cheaper!).
It’s a 4 hour drive to St Louis, Missouri still trundling East on the I70, with a 20 minute charging stop at Columbia. The scenery is greener and more akin to the motorways of the UK with a few differences - the giant utes flying past us that could run us over without noticing.
The campervans / RVs are also huge - we’re familiar with campervans towing a small car to zip around in wherever the RVs pitched, but these campervans are towing full sized Jeeps or Utes. One was towing a ute that was large enough to then also be carrying a golf buggy in the ute’s tray at the back.
And then there’s the billboards lining the interstate - from the ambulance chasing lawyers “hurt big, win big”. Plenty of Pro-Life boards too along with all the local businesses on the edge of towns.
Just on the outskirts of St Louis we drive into and through Lone Elk Park, rumbling over a cattle grid and peering through the sloping forest spotting both the larger elks and more petite deer. Another cattle grid and signs to “Stay in your car” brings us to the bison area, finding a dozen of these front heavy large creatures lying in the shade in a paddock panting - it’s almost 30 degrees and they’re shedding their thick winter coat.
It’s just 10 minutes to our Best Western Kirkwood hotel, dropping our gear off then heading 2 minutes to collect dinner from Panda Express taking it to Laumeier Sculpture Park just another couple of miles away.
Surrounded by installations of varying scale and varying levels of what normal [people would call art, we wolf down our Chinese takeaway, then strolling through the park to admire and critique. A tangled set of metal rods represent tangled umbilical cords and the complexity of life. A giant eyeball is perhaps the most striking. But it’s good to stretch the legs after time in the car, its still close to 30 degrees at 6pm and local parents sit in camp chairs whilst their kids do cross country practice around the park.
Back to the hotel to get the kids in bed, plus taking advantage of the hotel's Tesla chargers and also popping to Walmart for more lunch and snack supplies.